Spatial planning

Background. A key strategy in biodiversity conservation is the establishment of protected areas. In the future, however, the redistribution of species in response to ongoing climate change is likely to affect species' representativeness in those areas. Here we quantify the effectiveness of planning protected areas network to represent 151 birds endemic to the Brazilian Atlantic Forest hotspot, under current and future climate change conditions for 2050. Methods. We combined environmental niche modeling and systematic conservation planning using both a county and a regional level planning strategy. We recognized the conflict between biodiversity conservation and economic development, including socioeconomic targets (as opposed to biological only) and using planning units that are meaningful for policy-makers. Results. We estimated an average contraction of 29,500 km 2 in environmentally suitable areas for birds, representing 52% of currently suitable areas. Still, the most cost-effective solution represented almost all target species, requiring only ca. 10% of the Atlantic Forest counties to achieve that representativeness, independent of strategy. More than 50% of these counties were selected both in the current and future planned networks, representing >83% of the species. Discussion. Our results indicate that: (i) planning protected areas network currently can be useful to represent species under climate change; (ii) the overlapped planning units in the best solution for both current and future conditions can be considered as ''no regret'' areas; (iii) priority counties are spread throughout the biome, providing specific guidance wherever the possibility of creating protected area arises; and (iv) decisions can occur at different administrative spheres (Federal, State or County) as we found quite similar numerical solutions using either county or regional level strategies. How to cite this article Vale et al. (2018), Planning protected areas network that are relevant today and under future climate change is possible: the case of Atlantic Forest endemic birds. PeerJ 6:e4689; DOI 10.7717/peerj.4689

The article presents the concept of protection areas and gives a rough estimate of the content of regulations needed for implementing the concept. Types of protection areas are taken into account and upgrade this consideration by adjusting the typology to the role of heritage in a spatial context. Apart from the basic types of heritage (archaeological sites, buildings, facilities or installations, parks and gardens, commemorative structures and places, settlements and parts thereof, and cultural landscape), the proposal deals with spatially distinctive area types such as public spaces, linear structures, and building rows. The classification also takes into account special spatial phenomena of areas of impact and cultural spaces of intangible heritage.
Types of protection standards are adjusted to the type of a protection area in such a manner that the physical structure, historical context and cultural character of the area are taken into account. The proposal of protection standards introduces a concept of gradation of protection measures into high, intermediate and low grades.

Résumé [βλέπε παρακάτω περίληψη στα ελληνικά]
L'étude analyse la transformation du réseau urbain et des espaces ruraux, en relation avec le développement spatial et le gouvernement territorial et urbain en Grèce.
Pendant les trois premières décennies d'après-guerre, la croissance du pays a été axée sur la région métropolitaine d'Athènes, sur Thessalonique, et sur l'axe en forme de S de
Patras - Athènes - Thessalonique - Kavala. Pendant les décennies quatre-vingt et quatre-vingt-dix, le système urbain grec se modifie substantiellement. La région métropolitaine d'Athènes maintient son rôle souverain, même si sa tutelle administrative sur le reste du pays se restreint. La population du noyau initial - le bassin d'Athènes - est stabilisée, mais la région métropolitaine s'étend sur l'ensemble de l'Attique et maintient des rythmes élevés de croissance économique et démographique. La région métropolitaine de Thessalonique s'étend, tandis que, parallèlement, elle améliore son influence en Grèce du Nord et, progressivement, dans les Balkans.
L'évolution des autres centres urbains se différencie en fonction de leur taille, de leur localisation, de leurs caractéristiques économiques et de leur type d'interdépendance avec les autres centres et leur arrière-pays. Dans tous ces centres, la contribution du secteur agricole et industriel à l'économie et à l'emploi diminue, tandis qu'augmente la contribution des services et, dans un assez grand nombre de cas, du tourisme. Même dans les villes de 10 000 à 20 000 habitants, voire plus petites, les services et le tourisme couvrent désormais plus de la moitié de l'emploi.
Les centres présentant un rayonnement régional ou départemental manquent en général de dynamisme. Seuls Patras, le bipole de Voles-Larissa et Iraklion, atteignent la taille démographique de 130 000 à 240 000 habitants. Les chefs-lieux de département ont une taille démographique moyenne encore plus petite. Les deux cinquièmes de ceux-ci ont une population inferieure à 20 000 habitants et dépassent à peine le rôle de centres de l'espace rural.
Dans ce cadre, il faut renforcer le système urbain grec dans son ensemble, mais il faut aussi promouvoir la polycentralité, à différents niveaux de ce système. Plus spécialement, il est nécessaire que soient renforcées les interdépendances de développement entre les préfectures de région, les chefs-lieux de département et l'espace rural. Est proposée à cet égard la constitution d'un petit nombre de réseaux de villes puissants.
Dans la même perspective, l'amélioration du gouvernement territorial s'impose. Avec le Plan «Kapodistrias", les communes grecques très petites se sont regroupées dans des municipalités relativement puissantes. Mais, il faut aller plus loin et constituer des unités fortes de planification et d'intervention territoriale, à travers des coopérations communales appropriées. De plus, des fusions de régions administratives et de départements, homologues à la mise en réseau du développement proposée, sont nécessaires.
Περίληψη
Η μελέτη αναλύει τον μετασχηματισμό του αστικού δικτύου και των αγροτικών περιοχών, σε σχέση με την χωρική ανάπτυξη και την χωρική και αστική διακυβέρνηση στην Ελλάδα.
Κατά τις τρεις πρώτες δεκαετίες μετά τον πόλεμο, η ανάπτυξη της χώρας επικεντρώθηκε στην μητροπολιτική περιοχή της Αθήνας, στη Θεσσαλονίκη, και στον άξονα σχήματος S
Πάτρα - Αθήνα - Θεσσαλονίκη - Καβάλα. Στις δεκαετίες του '80 και του '90, το ελληνικό αστικό σύστημα μεταβάλλεται σημαντικά. Η μητροπολιτική περιοχή της Αθήνας διατηρεί τον κυρίαρχο ρόλο της, ακόμη και αν η διοικητική της εξουσία στην υπόλοιπη χώρα περιορίζεται. Ο πληθυσμός του αρχικού πυρήνα – το λεκανοπέδιο της Αθήνας - έχει σταθεροποιηθεί, αλλά η μητροπολιτική περιοχή καλύπτει πλέον ολόκληρη την Αττική και διατηρεί υψηλά ποσοστά οικονομικής και δημογραφικής ανάπτυξης. Η μητροπολιτική περιοχή της Θεσσαλονίκης διευρύνεται, ενώ ταυτόχρονα βελτιώνει την επιρροή της στη Βόρεια Ελλάδα και, σταδιακά, στα Βαλκάνια.
Η εξέλιξη των άλλων αστικών κέντρων διαφοροποιείται ανάλογα με το μέγεθος, την χωροθέτηση, τα οικονομικά χαρακτηριστικά τους και τον τύπο αλληλεξάρτησης με άλλα κέντρα και την ενδοχώρα τους. Σε όλα αυτά τα κέντρα, η συμβολή του αγροτικού και βιομηχανικού τομέα στην οικονομία και στην απασχόληση μειώνεται, ενώ αυξάνεται η συμβολή των υπηρεσιών και, σε αρκετά μεγάλο αριθμό περιπτώσεων, του τουρισμού. Ακόμη και στις πόλεις με 10.000 έως 20.000 κατοίκους ή ακόμα λιγότερους, οι υπηρεσίες και ο τουρισμός καλύπτουν τώρα περισσότερο από το ήμισυ της απασχόλησης.
Τα κέντρα με περιφερειακή ή νομαρχιακή επιρροή στερούνται γενικά δυναμισμού. Μόνο η Πάτρα, το δίπολο Βόλου-Λάρισας και το Ηράκλειο, φθάνουν το δημογραφικό μέγεθος των 130.000 έως 240.000 κατοίκων. Τα νομαρχιακά κέντρα έχουν ακόμη μικρότερο μέσο δημογραφικό μέγεθος. Τα δύο πέμπτα από αυτά έχουν πληθυσμό κάτω των 20.000 κατοίκων και μόλις υπερβαίνουν τον ρόλο των αγροτικών κέντρων.
Σε αυτό το πλαίσιο, το ελληνικό αστικό σύστημα στο σύνολό του πρέπει να ενισχυθεί, αλλά χρειάζεται επίσης να προωθηθεί η πολυκεντρικότητα σε διαφορετικά επίπεδα αυτού του συστήματος. Πιο συγκεκριμένα, χρειάζεται να ενισχυθούν οι αναπτυξιακές αλληλεξαρτήσεις μεταξύ των περιφερειακών κέντρων, των νομαρχιακών κέντρων και του αγροτικού χώρου. Από αυτή την άποψη, προτείνεται η δημιουργία ενός μικρού αριθμού ισχυρών δικτύων πόλεων.
Στην ίδια προοπτική, επιβάλλεται η βελτίωση της χωρικής διακυβέρνησης. Με το Σχέδιο «Καποδίστριας», οι πολύ μικρές ελληνικές κοινότητες έχουν συνενωθεί σε σχετικά ισχυρούς δήμους. Όμως, είναι απαραίτητο να προχωρήσουμε περαιτέρω και να συγκροτήσουμε ισχυρές μονάδες σχεδιασμού και χωρικής παρέμβασης μέσω κατάλληλων συνεργασιών των κοινοτήτων. Επιπρόσθετα, είναι αναγκαίες συγχωνεύσεις διοικητικών περιφερειών και νομαρχιών, ομόλογες με την προτεινόμενη αναπτυξιακή δικτύωση.

The article gives a condensed overview of the situation of integration of heritage issues in spatial planning across Europe and in this context the online accessibility of heritage information as one of the spatial data sets. This information and services are used for better and timely management of heritage and application of protection standards when heritage is faced with development needs and interests. Heritage protection through planning started nearly forty years ago and ever since developed into the most important tool in terms of heritage management. A brief comparative study is presented to illustrate the specificity of integration of heritage and spatial planning in individual European countries (UK - England, France, Germany - Bavaria and Slovenia). Each country has developed unique information tools that mirror the history of inventorisation, protection measures and planning control. Most European countries replaced traditional alphanumeric inventory databases with computerised ones, and in some cases have built complex information systems by combining different data sets, and enabled interoperability with other institutional information systems. Finally as a case of good practice, the prototype of spatial visualization: lines of sight is presented. The tool has been tested in the context of 3D Urbanism of the Municipality of Ljubljana. Lines of sight analysis of a given part of a townscape reveals the visibility of cultural heritage before and after the potential new development and encourages the protection of heritage assets through urban planning.

The paper presents the results of a study on parking standards conducted among the experts involved in developing municipal spatial plans, along with an overview of parking standards in more than 50 municipalities in Slovenia. The study shows that, although parking problems pose a considerable challenge in towns and cities, the experts’ awareness of how to use parking standards to meet these challenges, is still not sufficiently developed.

The quantitative analysis of the watershed is vital to understand the hydrological structure of any topography. The present study deals with quantitative assessment of Manair Basin, Telangana, India, based on IRS LISS III satellite data and Cartosat DEM 30m resolution data. Morphometric parameters of the watershed were assessed by computations of linear and areal aspect using standard methodology in GIS environment. ARC GIS software was utilized for morphometric component study and delineation of the watershed using Cartosat digital elevation model (DEM). In this study, the Manair basin, tributaries of Godavari River, has been selected for thorough morphometric analysis. The drainage area of the basin is 6668.76 km2 and shows sub-dendritic to dendritic drainage pattern. The study area is designated as Fifth order basin with the drainage density value being as 0.41 km/km2. Three sub-watersheds Upper Manair, Mid Manair and Lower Manair are also delineated within this basin to calculate the selected morphometric parameters, e.g., stream order, stream length, bifurcation ratio, drainage density, drainage frequency, drainage texture, form factor, circularity ratio, elongation ratio, etc. and their hydrological implications were discussed. The generated database of morphometric parameters can provide scientific material for site selection of water-harvesting structures and flood management activities in the basin. The results observed from this work would also be useful in classification of watershed for future water management.

The article outlines the Slovenian legal system for
cultural heritage protection with several specific regulations and open questions concerning archaeological sites. In this respect, the idea of the so-called Heritage Protection Areas is discussed. It is argued that the draft regulation should define archaeological protection standards, possibly defining three levels of protection. In parallel, the existing data entered into the Cultural Heritage Register should be re-evaluated, and the new archaeological sites discovered with the help of non-invasive and less-invasive surveys should be put under protection as soon as possible.

To improve quality of life as well as the adaptive capacity in the city of Rotterdam over the past 15 years there has been a lot of focus on improving green infrastructure and finding new ways for integrated planning. As many cities face similar challenges they are looking for novel approaches in urban ecosystem governance. The Rotterdam case can be an interesting example but can also reveal new questions to be researched.Before local policies and projects where developed a regional and urban green blue vision of how to improve overall quality of life using green infrastructure were developed. This provided policy frameworks for politicians, policymakers and other actors. Later on the same was done with Urban Waterplan 2, using the Rotterdam Watercity 2030 vision document as a basis. This vision was the result of a stakeholder based planning process which was made for the International Architecture Biennale 2005. Within these frameworks many interesting projects have been built and tested in the city and city region; ranging from a) a roof park over a railway yard to connect neighbourhoods to the waterfront, to b) water squares and c) digging new waterways with connected walking and biking routes. To go from projects to an overall implementation at city level required tools and approaches for better decision making. For the 'Dakpark' project as well as for the Zomerhofkwartier, the first climate proof neighbourhood in the city, stakeholder sessions were held and plans were drawn together with urban planners and landscape architects. To feed these processes even better and to know what would be an optimal solution for certain challenges, city data were studied and linked to scalable GIS mapping in the 'smart city planner'. This tool gives the decision maker the possibility to quickly have an overview of an area and can be used in a stakeholder process to provide relevant additional information and to define joint projects. The tool makes it possible to do this for all 90 neighbourhoods in the city.Overall the urban ecosystem governance in the city of Rotterdam has-with trial and error-lead to a series of innovative projects. The next steps are acceleration and scaling up to city and regional level. Valuing the crucial role of green blue infrastructure for several aspects of the quality of life in cities are paramount. ã

We explore whether Rotterdam city has the governance capacity in terms of processes at place, and the attention in terms of vision and strategy to take up an integrated approach toward urban resilience. We adopt an interpretative policy analysis approach to assess the dynamics of urban ecosystem governance considering interviews, gray literature, and facilitated dialogues with policy practitioners. We show the inner workings of local government across strategic, operational, tactical, and reflective governance processes about the way urban ecosystems are regulated. Despite the existing capacity to steer such processes, a number of underlying challenges exist: need for coordination between planning departments; need to ease the integration of new policy objectives into established adaptive policy cycles; and need to assess the lessons learnt from pilots and emerging green initiatives. Regulating and provisioning ecosystem services receive heightened policy attention. Focus on regulating services is maintained by a policy renewal cycle that limits and delays consideration of other ecosystem services in policy and planning.

By the year 2025 Rotterdam aims to have halved its CO2 emissions; an ambitious plan that will require a revolutionary approach to urban areas. One proactive response to this challenge is an exploratory study of the Hart van Zuid area. An interdisciplinary team has investigated how to tackle CO2-issues in a structured way. This has resulted in the Rotterdam Energy Approach and Planning (REAP) methodology. REAP supports initial demand for energy, propagates the use of waste streams and advocates use of renewable energy sources to satisfy the remaining demand. REAP can be applied at all levels: individual buildings, clusters of buildings and even whole neighbourhoods. Applying REAP to the Hart van Zuid has shown that this existing area can become CO2 neutral. Best of all: REAP can be applied everywhere.

This article introduces the special issue ‘Planning amid crisis and austerity: in, against and beyond the contemporary juncture’. It starts by acknowledging two limits of the existing body of literature on the planning/crisis/austerity nexus: on the one hand, the excessive reliance on cases at the ‘core’ of the financial crisis of 2007-8, with impacts on the understanding of austerity as a response to economic crises; and, on the other, the limited attention given to the impacts of austerity on planning, and their implications for planning practice and research. Based on the contributions in the special issue, the article reflects on some lessons learned: first, the need for a more nuanced understanding of the multiple geographies and temporalities of crisis and austerity; second, the problematic standing of planning practice and research in the face of crisis and austerity; and, third, the potential and limitations of (local) responses and grassroots mobilisations in shaping alternatives.

This research aims to re-envision the city, understanding it as a living system where change creates growth and renewal, and where uncertainty is our new normal. Chile, as a territory, is exposed to multiple natural forces that trigger a series of natural disasters that affect cities in different ways and degrees in the country. In that context, the city of Concepción has been affected severely during the last two decades. Concepción is a coastal urban area that has grown into the flood plain of two river mouths and an ecological important tidal coastal wetland landscape. The territory is increasingly at risk due to the urban pressure of the expanding city, resulting in degradation of ecosystems and natural infrastructure and with that exposing the coastal city to even more frequent and severe natural hazards. The key opportunity to face the existing challenges does not lie in the primacy of one system upon the other. Both, city and landscape need to interact in a more redefined way, looking for multifunctional structures and a new awareness of the importance of the presently disrupted landscape. What is a new resilient urban landscape backbone? The following research resulted in a void adaptive network based on design principles: 1. Value the natural system as the base infrastructure for the future city. 2. Use of voids (unplanned spaces) as an emergent, autonomous and self-organized network to create redundancy and multifunctional spaces for risk management. 3. Complete the void network using a green and blue infrastructure in order to provide a resilient backbone for the city. 4. Reformulate the city as a provider of nature: larger green spaces, landscape connectivity and protection of the ecological values of the existing nature. Applying these steps lead to a resilient spatial framework for the city of Concepción that can provide more stability and safety against natural disasters. The designed backbone was consequently tested in a few natural disaster scenarios and adapted where necessary. This approach can be applied in other cities with similar challenges.

In the middle of the Flevopolder there is a dyke, the so-called Knardijk. Many people see the dyke when they drive on the highway A6 between Almere and Lelystad, but hardly anybody knows why this dyke was built. In a small lecture, given as a result of an excursion from the national heritage association Heemschut to the Knardijk, I try to explain that the dyke was necessary to reclaim the most fertile part of the former Zuiderzee. Because of the size of this area it was not desirable to construct the Flevopolder in one go and therefore is was done in two stages. The Knardijk therefore is both the dyke of Eastern Flevoland (drained in 1957) and Southern Flevoland (drained in 1968). Like the Slachtedijk in the province of Frisia and the Westfrisian Omringdijk, the Knardijk contributes to the identity of the region and has a tremendous cultural historical value. If one wants to experience the space of a Dutch polder, then you have to go cycling on the Knardijk.

(Pictures: Batavialand, Lelystad, except for the black-and-white photos on pages 31-35 (Het Flevolands Archief, Lelystad).

This study addresses two main topics. The first one is to describe the Rotterdam Water city 2035 approach, a systemic water approach for Rotterdam dealing with storm water and at the same time exploring synergies to improve quality of life. The second topic deals with the question if the approach was successful as well as what lessons can be learned from this. Polders and the inverted urban landscape The city of Rotterdam is built on the riverbanks of the river Maas and river Rotte, in elevation, just above sea level. With some exceptions, the North and Eastern part of the city is built into many different kind of polders below sea level. Over the course of some 800 years the drained peat beds subsided to lower levels. Nowadays the western part of the Netherlands consists of a patchwork of either, different kind of polders below sea level originating from different eras, in different seizes with either peat or sea clay, or, (former) riverbeds above the surrounding landscape (fig.1). The sandy riverbeds did not subside. This is called the inverted landscape! The central area of the city near the banks of the river Maas and the port are the highest grounds in the city! Challenges and Aims With a changing climate, natural water cycles are also influenced. As a delta city, Rotterdam had already to deal with water issues coming from all sides. Yet due to climate change the extremes of discharge and precipitation are becoming bigger (fig.2). More river discharge is expected as well as sea level rise. These are issues which are addressed at national and local level such as in the national Room for River program and others. This is not part of the scope of this study. In the area studied there will be more peaks in precipitation which means more rain showers which will release more water than average this is alternated with periods of no or little rain (KNMI, 1999). Over the years more storage capacity to store rain water was and is needed in the city. Van der Brugge et al. (2010) mention that for the Rotterdam region, 600.000 m 3 of extra water retention is needed before

Άρθρο στο βιβλίο «Πόλη και Χώρος από τον 20ό στον 21ο αιώνα» (τιμητικός τόμος για τον Καθηγητή Αθαν. Ι. Αραβαντινό) σσ. 1-14, Σχολή Αρχιτεκτόνων ΕΜΠ, Τμήμα Μηχανικών Χωροταξίας, Πολεοδομίας και Περιφερειακής ανάπτυξης Πανεπ. Θεσσαλίας- Σύλλογος Ελλήνων Πολεοδόμων και Χωροτακτών, Αθήνα, 2004.

Land is, besides labour and capital, one of the classic production factors in economic theory. However, neoclassical economics dominating the 20 th century, simplified production theory to only labour and capital, treating land either as just another form of capital or as the natural resources it harbours. This hides the central role of land-in the meaning of spatial extension and location-for contemporary economies, where land rent is an essential cost and location a productive factor for most economic activities, not least since these increasingly are located in cities. Critical here is the confusion often found concerning property values and the distinction between land and improvements, the latter most often constituted by buildings, where buildings quite naturally can be treated as capital, while land cannot. Importantly, while property value can be increased by its owner through improvements, such as new buildings, she is very limited in influencing the land value, since this is a collective variable dependent on the economic development of the city as a whole. It is here proposed that improvements on land in contemporary urbanised economies to a dominant degree concern systems of centrality and accessibility generating relative locations, that are further enhanced by buildings and land division, and that this constitutes what is proposed to be called a spatial capital, which to a large degree is created through the practices of urban planning and design. In this paper we investigate the dependency of spatial form on land value. First, we review how spatial form and the configurations of accessibility it generates on land, influences housing prices to find support for the intimate relationship between relative location and monetary market values. Second, we investigate the dominance of land values compared to improvement values in four Swedish cities of different size Third, we investigate how known parameters of spatial form correlates with land values in Gothenburg, Sweden. We see close associations between spatial form and land values, both in shape of market housing prices and as property taxation values. Land value holds a larger share of total property taxation value in larger cities, suggesting that relative location is valued higher where economic activity is greater. Furthermore, we find clear correlations between spatial form and land taxation values. Altogether, these findings indicate that spatial capital encompasses monetary value. In extension, these findings also indicate how knowledge based and skilful urban planning and design can create measurable value.

The need for planning cannot be over-emphasized. Urbanization is progressing rapidly and by 2050, seven out of ten people will be living in cities. Inappropriate policies, plans and designs have led to inadequate spatial distribution of people and activities, resulting in proliferation of slums, congestion, poor access to basic services, environmental degradation, and social inequity and segregation.

The International Guidelines on Urban and Territorial Planning serve both as a source of inspiration and a compass for decision makers and urban professionals when reviewing urban and territorial planning systems. The Guidelines provide national governments, local authorities, civil society organizations and planning professionals with a global reference framework that promotes more compact, socially inclusive, better integrated and connected cities and territories that foster sustainable urban development and are resilient to climate change.

Available in 12 languages

Airspace conservation (aeroconservation) is a relative latecomer to ecosystem management, despite intensifying threats to birds, bats and invertebrates in the habitat. This article demonstrates the geographies of threats and examines gaps in law and policy responses. Commonly treated at law, and in fact, as an extension of terrestrial or marine spaces, recognition of air as habitat and related conservation protection is rare. In addition, management is confounded by the dynamic, three-dimensional and indivisible nature of airspace, by wildlife and aircraft mobility, and by temporal features. Regulation of airspace and patterns of spatial activity are dominated by aircraft traffic control and related transport imperatives to the exclusion of wildlife protection. Where strategic planning mechanisms are applied, they are often tied to amorphous definitions of habitat, rely upon terrestrial habitat
protection for their expression or are reflected as two-dimensional notations on a map. Recommendations to enhance protection for co-existence include transforming the approach to airspace and adopting integrated, strategic and three-dimensional approaches.

Βασικός σκοπός της εισήγησης είναι να συμβάλει στη συζήτηση για: - την αποτίμηση των μέχρι τώρα επιπτώσεων των μεταβολών που συνδέονται με την κοινωνία των πληροφοριών στην τοπική και περιφερειακή ανάπτυξη στην Ελλάδα - τις αντίστοιχες προοπτικές - με τη διατύπωση και αξιολόγηση εναλλακτικών σεναρίων («τύπων ενσωμάτωσης») της καινοτομίας στην ανάπτυξη του ελληνικού χώρου - τις αναγκαίες παρεμβάσεις για να αξιοποιήσει αποτελεσματικά η χώρα μας τις ραγδαίες κοινωνικο-τεχνικές μεταβολές στην αντιμετώπιση των περιφερειακών προβλημάτων